KHAR, Pakistan – A government official in Pakistan says militants have killed an army captain and two soldiers in an attack in a tribal region near its border with Afghanistan.

Shah Nasim Khan says a group of some 60 militants attacked the army post in the Ghakhi area of the Bajur tribal region early Saturday. He says they later escaped to Afghanistan's Kunar province. He says another soldier and a civilian cook were injured.

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Khan says a retaliatory attack injured some escaping militants.

Pakistan's army largely has cleared the Bajur tribal region of militants but its posts often come under cross-border attacks. In June, militants killed 20 soldiers in three attacks. Pakistani troops killed some 50 attackers in retaliatory attacks.